Until Abby
by PenelopePotter28
Summary: Preschoolers are dissapearing, and when they find them, Abby soon becomes torn.
1. Chapter 1

"And in a repeat news broadcast, more and more preschoolers across the country have been disappearing."

Nigel Uno was in the tree house flipping channels when he heard this and stopped. The bored Hoagie Gilligan looked up from the second couch. He glanced at Nigel with a confused expression. Nigel looked back at him as if to say, "Shhh, this could be something."

"Missing children under the age of five have been popping up in police reports everywhere, and parents are begging for their little ones to return," the news anchor was saying. A video of two parents wiping their eyes was shown on-screen.

"We don't know where he went!" the mother said.. "He just disappeared one night!"

"We just want our little boy back!" said the father of another couple. The mother was crying too hard to understand what she said next. The baby girl they were holding cried, "Ebul! Ebul!" and then started sucking on the collar of her pink dress.

"We've gotta do something about this," Hoagie said, as Nigel clicked off the TV. His communicator rang just then.

"Hello?" he said. "Yes….yes….really?….here?…alright." He hung up.

"We were just assigned to."


	2. Chapter 2

Everything seemed quiet in the old abandoned storage building. That is, until the KND ship crashed through the wall. Out came Sector V of KND. Abby, Numbah 5, jumped out the side, growling, her bright red hat nearly falling off. Wally, Numbah 4, ran out the other side, flailing his weapon all around and yowling. Kuki, Hoagie, and Nigel climbed out the top. Numbahs 3, 2, and 1.

They ran through different rooms, each one coming up empty. Numbahs 1-4 were running around like psychos, but Numbah 5 listened at a door. Inside she heard a man's voice shouting, "Faster! Faster, you little worms!"

"Guys!" she half-hissed, half-whispered. "In here!"

She opened the door, just a crack. There was a line of little kids pulling a rope. Just behind them, a man was yelling directions. He looked about forty, deep into the adult world. There were scowls.

"We gotta stop this," Numbah 5 whispered. But before she could speak her plan, the others barged through the door and pointed their weapons at the man.

"Freeze, freak!" Numbah 1 cried.

It was a pretty good battle. They fired, he dodged and dropped a steel girder, they dodged it and Numbah 5 beat him down until he was unconscious. She put in a call to take him to the KND arctic prison. They said they'd arrive shortly.

"So, now we're done?" Numbah 4 asked.

"Not quite," said Numbah 1. "We still have to find those preschoolers.

"Down this way," said Numbah 5. There was whimpering coming from the hallway she was pointing to. The others followed her as she ran down, turned right, then left, then stopped at the door. SLAVES was written on it in crude handwriting. Numbah 5 slowly pushed it open.


	3. Chapter 3

Standing before the team was a group of about 25 young kids, no older than four. Some were dressed in gunny sacks, some in tattered, wrinkled clothes, and some not at all. They all seemed to have the same shade of mousy brown hair, and they were all covered in dirt and dust. They looked up with frightened eyes.

"Are you gonna hurt us?" one little boy asked, stepping forward a bit. The team realised they still had their weapons raised. They hurriedly lowered them, and Abby stepped forward, kneeling down to meet the boy's eyes.

"No, we're not," she said gently, and tousled the boy's hair. He backed away a little.

"Yeah! We're here to rescue you!" Numbah 3 burst out. The kids jumped.

"What has he done to you?" Numbah 1 asked. The kids just shook.

"Can't you see they're too frightened to tell us anything?" cried Abby, her black dialect ringing out. "But Numbah 5 knows what _will _tell us something." She walked over to a video monitor and pressed a few buttons. "Security camera footage," she said simply. They watched the monitor buzz to life.

The team cringed at the videos they saw. The preschoolers had been whipped, starved, and a few of them worked to death. They had been forced to do mindless work, the evil man shouting over their heads. Hoagie turned away. The kids cringed too. They could still feel the sting of the whip every time they heard it crack. Abby pressed a button and stopped the video.

"That….was terrible," Nigel cried, fear ringing in his words.

"My eyes will never be the same again," Wally added, his Australian accent ringing in his.

"Look, we gotta get these kids back home," Abby said.

"Agreed," Nigel responded. "We'll take them home. Wherever their homes may be."

Suddenly Abby notised another voice. A 26th kid, sitting in a corner, whimpering. She had light brown hair and was wearing a ripped white T-shirt and tattered jeans. She had glasses, one lens broken. And she couldn'tve been more than three.

"What's your name, sweety?" Abby asked, kneeling down to the whimpering girl.

"L-l-lily," the little girl stammered out.

"Well, Lily, today's your lucky day. Cuz everything's gonna be OK." She took the little girl in her arms.

"Alright, let's get them back to the tree house," Numbah 1 commanded. "They can stay in Numbah 5's room until we can build a PreSchoolmobile to transport them."

Abby picked up Lily. The poor girl had been starved, so she was very light. They all headed back to the ship, some of them stumbling from weakness, Lily resting her head on Abby's shoulder.


	4. Chapter 4

When they got back to the tree house, Abby led the kids to her room. She let them eat from her private ice cream stash, and then nap on her couch, her bed, and in some cases the floor (which they didn't mind one bit). Lily was curled up on her pillow. Abby opened a drawer beside her bed. She took out an old doll she had played with when she was five. She had taken that doll everywhere. Her name was Penny. She tucked the doll into Lily's arms. Suddenly her door quietly creaked open.

"The PreSchoolmobile is ready," Numbah 2 said, coming in the door.

"Alright, alright," Abby stage-whispered. "Just let me get them up from their nap."

Hoagie nodded and closed the door. Abby gently shook the pack of preschoolers awake and took the sleepy-eyed bunch downstairs.

Abby saw their skoolbus temporarily converted into a PreSchoolmobile. On the inside it sported a couple tubs, a roomful of small beds, and a bunch of high chairs, as well as a dollhouse and a couple of Kuki's Rainbow Monkeys. ("Just to borrow!") Abby led the children to their beds so they could continue their nap.

"Alright," Nigel said. "Where do we go from here?"

"Oh Nigey!" an all-too-familiar voice called out.

_I can't believe this, _Abby thought. But she looked out the window and there she was. Numbah 1's girlfriend. Lizzie.

"Oh _!" _she called out again.

"What, Lizzie," Nigel answered, his hand over his face in frustration. Lizzie was the last person he expected to show up.

"I brought you a _preeeeeeeeseeeeeeeent!" _she sang up, followed by a swift "LET ME IN!"

Numbah 1 shook his head and pressed the button to open the door. Lizzie trounced up the steps, wielding a pie.

"Lizzie, I don't want a-" Nigel started, but Lizzie cut him off. "Come on, come on," she said, waving a piece over his head. Just then, Lizzie felt a tug on her shirt. She looked down.

"Can I have some?" one of the little kids asked.

Lizzie growled, then softened her face. "Of coooourse you can have some!" she sang, handing the boy a piece. He took a bite. Everyone cringed, waiting for an unconscious kid on their hands. But the boy spread his face in a wide grin. "Mmmmm."

"That is not possible," said Hoagie in disbelief.

"These kids are so starved, they'll eat anything," his friend countered, leaning over.

"You think you could whip up a couple more of these?" Abby asked her, hearing the preschoolers waking up in the other room. The one by her side looked scared at the word _whip, but Abby placed a hand on his head reassuringly._

"_Sure!" Lizzie squealed, and skipped off of the ship._

"_Alright, where first?" Numbah 1 asked._

"_California," Abby said surely. "They said most of the kids came from there,"_

"_Alright," Numbah 2 said. "It'll take about an hour to get there."_

_The ship rose up into the air and took off. Abby went back into the makeshift bedroom. All but three of the kids were lying awake in their beds. Abby drew a quick bath for each of them. Once they were a little cleaner, Abby came up with a few blondes, some raven-black hairs, and even a redhead. The rest woke up, and Lily stumbled into the room where Abby was drying off a little blonde boy._

"_Im hungry," she said. Abby realised they probably all were. It had been near;y an hour since they had had her ice cream, and considering how starved they were, that wasn't enough. She bathed the last few and placed them in the high chairs. They were just finishing up when Hoagie's sure, strong pilot's voice came over the intercom. Some of the kids squealed at the loud sound, but Abby listened up._

"_We are now landing in California."_


	5. Chapter 5

**I have no idea what happened to the last chapter. Anyway on the second time she spoke Lizzie was supposed to call out "Oh !" and then Hoagie was supposed to say "Trust me, kid, you don't wanna do that," before Lizzie growled, and then it went italic for some reason. But anyway, here's Part 5.**

**Abby asked some of the kids if they knew where they lived. A couple of them pointed out that they saw the big sign from their house with all the circles (the HOLLYWOOD sign, which truthfully did have a lot of O's) and three of them knew the sandy beach very well. **

**Abby and Hoagie were the ones to take them back to their homes. Each time, their parents and sometimes siblings embraced their children and thanked the twosome. One man even paid Abby five bucks for returning his daughter. **

**The last couple said their friends had lost a child too. This happened eight times, and by the time all the California kids had been delivered safely back to their homes, their count had been reduced to 11 kids, including Lily. **

**Abby tucked them in for another nap, and looked at Lily holding Penny tightly. She gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before returning to the cabin.**

**Hoagie was just about to ask where they would go to next when all of their watches beeped. A message flashed on each little screen: DINNER. This was the night they had to be home for dinner. Wally groaned as Hoagie started the ship back for home.**

**Abby ran into her house a few minutes late. Her dad served her some macaroni and cheese. "Here's your dinner, with the scooping, and the chewing, and the eating…" Abby groaned a little inside her head. She loved her dad, but he always took forever to complete a sentence.**

**Cree came and sat down at the table. She shot a slight glare at Abby. Abby shot one back and stabbed a macaroni noodle a little more furiously than she should have. Cree stabbed harder. Abby stabbed even harder, going right through to her plate and nearly cracking it in the progress and making a sharp dinging sound that caught the attention of both her parents. She looked a little embarrassed and slid down in her seat. Cree smirked, knowing she had won this time.**

**The next morning, Abby went to the tree house right away. The eleven remaining preschoolers were sound asleep in her room. She went out to one of the decks.**

**Hoagie was out there making a few modifications to the PreSchoolmobile. "Is everyone else here yet?" she asked him.**

"**Numbah 3 is still held up at her house, but she should be here soon," he replied.**

"**Where should we go next?"**

"**Chicago. At least two of the kids are from there."**

"**Alright," she said, walking through a door. The kids were starting to wake up. Abby gave them some food. Numbah 1 came in the room and told her it was time to go.**

**Abby brought the kids out to the deck. Everyone, including Kuki, was there. She was still tugging on and adjusting her too-long green sleeves. They climbed on board and got ready to deliver their second round of kids.**

**After delivering three kids to Chicago and two to New York City, they were flying along to Seattle with six kids in hand. Lily was still with them.**

**Suddenly a girl with familiar bright red hair flashed on the screen.**

"**Numbah 362 wants you to report to moon base, now!" Numbah 86 told them. This had to be one of her calmer moments. She blinked off-screen before anyone could respond.**

"**What are we gonna do?" Numbah 2 asked.**

"**She said Numbah 362 wants us on moon base," Numbah 1 said.**

"**But what about the kids?" Numbah 4 asked.**

"**Numbah 5 thinks she can bring them along without any trouble," Numbah 5 pointed out simply.**

"**Numbah 5, we're not supposed to bring ANYONE up there," Numbah 1 reminded her.**

"**Well what else do you expect us to do?" she asked.**

**Numbah 1 didn't have an answer to this. So he simply told Hoagie to get up to moon base. Abby smiled. SHE had won this time.**


	6. Chapter 6

The PreSchoolmobile docked right next to the moon base. Abby was left in charge of the kids. Numbah 1 thought it would be better if they stayed behind.

Abby gave the kids a little more food and let some of them play with the dollhouse. She curled up on a chair, watching out the window, not notising that one of the toddlers, the only boy they had left who wasn't interested in the dollhouse or the orange Rainbow Monkey that the redhead had begun chewing on, was stumbling dangerously close to the control panel. He had absorbed Abby's bravery a little too quickly.

Next thing she knew, Abby heard a buzz and a beep. She sat up so suddenly that her hat fell to the floor. The little boy had pressed the "Emergency start" button that had been installed in case they needed to get away fast and the regular start wasn't working. The PreSchoolmobile started up, going backwards into space. Abby grabbed the steering handles without thinking and turned.

It took several tries to maneuver the ship back into place. When she finally got it docked again, Abby leaned over and sighed.

Then she looked up. The kids had been watching her the entire time. They were wide-eyed, staring. Lily had dropped her doll, and the redhead was frozen with her teeth clamped on the stuffed toy's ear.

Suddenly the rest of the team ran out to the ship.

"Numbah 5! We saw what happened!" Numbah 1 cried out as he and the others ran aboard the ship. "What was going on?"

"Oh, one of the kids pressed the emergency start button," Abby said, as if it happened every day. "So what did Numbah 362 want?"

"Just to see if we had gotten the preschoolers out. She wasn't too happy that six of them were up here, though."

"What are you sayin'?" she asked.

"I'm 'sayin'' that we can't tote them everywhere!" Nigel cried. "We have to fulfill our responsibilities as KND operatives! We can't spend all our time taking care of a bunch of babies! And you could've gotten yourself killed when that boy pressed the emergency start!"

While they were having this discussion, Hoagie was heading the ship back to earth.

"They're not babies, they're preschoolers!" Abby argued. "And the KND is about helping kids! Aren't we doing that by getting these kids home?""Yes, but that is not the point!" Numbah 1 cried in frustration. "I'm sorry, but we can't do this any more. We'll turn them in to a lost kids place or something."The ship landed and Numbahs 1-4 got off first.

"Numbah 5? Aren't you coming?" Hoagie asked.

"No," she said. "Numbah 5 can't believe you guys would be this heartless. She's finishing this alone."

"Numbah 5..." Nigel started, but before he could say anything more, she had taken control of the PreSchoolmobile and started off on her way to Seattle. She was determined to get each and every kid home. No matter what it took.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for the short chap, but the next one is gonna be REALLY long so I thought this would be a good place to break off.**

Abby was on her way home. It had taken the rest of the day to get the kids out to Seattle, and then a couple to Florida, since she wasn't the most experienced flier. But so far, things had gone well. She returned five of the kids, and now only Lily remained. But it was getting late, and she knew she would have to take Lily home tomorrow.

As she was landing the PreSchoolmobile, Lily hugged her legs. Abby looked down at her and smiled. She had grown a little since she had been rescued and now was less thin, light, and frail. She almost looked like she hadn't been a slave at all.

Abby landed the PreSchoolmobile at the treehouse. No one talked to her as she walked through to her room. Lily laid down on her couch, and Abby in her bed. 

Abby thought about what she had done earlier. Just storming off like that- but they deserved it! How could they not want to get all these kids home? Abby had always had a way with little kids, whether it was rocking to sleep a bunch of babies when her team couldn't (even though they ended up stealing her teeth for a short time later) or calming down a first grader before a battle on the middle school that no one was prepared for. She guessed she just wanted a little sibling, being the youngest of three.

Abby looked over at Lily's calm, peaceful face and smiled. She knew things may not be quite the same after this was all over, but she knew one thing: she was prepared for it.

**What WILL happen next? And yes she is youngest of three, remember in Operation D.I.A.P.E.R. she says she has an older brother. Anyway the next one might take a while to write so hang in there!**


	8. Chapter 8

When Abby woke up, she sensed that something was wrong.

She dressed quickly and walked over to the couch. Lily was there, completely covered with a blanket.

But Abby had not put a blanket over her the night before. It was a hot and muggy evening in the middle of the summer, and Abby didn't think she would need one. She threw back the blanket to find a pillow and a note.

KNDorks,

I have captured your little girl. I am going to take her to be a slave again. You will never stop me!

I. L.

The evil man! He must have taken her back. Abby didn't know what to do for a moment. But then she looked again and found that Penny was gone. Lily must have found a way to take the doll with her.

Abby rummaged through a drawer. She pulled out a tracking device. After someone had broken into her room and stolen half her stuff a few months ago, she had put tracking chips on everything-even her oldest possessions. She just hoped it hadn't fallen off.

Abby ran out to the PreSchoolmobile before anyone else was awake. She hooked the tracker up to the ship's GPS system. She started off.

It was two hours later when she landed in front of a small building on an only slightly bigger island. She ran up to it and peeked in a window. There was the evil man, watching TV. Abby moved to another window, then another. Finally she saw Lily struggling to move a vacuum cleaner. Abby silently slipped through the window. Lily squealed when she saw her and ran to her.

"Shhh-hhh!" Abby told her, but it was too late. The man had heard. Abby heard his footsteps coming closer and closer. The door swung open and next thing Abby knew she was on the floor with a small portion of her braid lying next to her. Lily was a foot away.

"So," the man said. "You've come for her. You got lucky the first time. I was off my guard. But now I'm prepared for you. And I'm gonna finish you off."

Then his eyes began to glow, and lasers shot out of them. Abby nearly dodged the laser and dove to protect Lily.

"You've got…"

"Laser eyes? Yes, there was an accident. But I think I got something good out of it!"

Abby took out her weapon. She had a S.C.A.M.P.P. with her. She fired quickly, but the man used his laser eyes to deflect the blast. He then used another blast to destroy her only weapon. Abby cursed herself for not bringing more. How could she ever have thought this would be a simple in-and-out rescue.

"Now, I am going to enslave every preschooler on earth! Finally there will be someone to do my work for me! I'm SICK of doing it myself!"

"This guy's crazy," Abby muttered to herself. She then realised that the man kept talking, talking, talking about what he would make the slaves do. She slowly crept towards the window, Lily in her arms. She had Lily on the ground on the other side of the window and one leg over herself when Lily squealed again. There was a blast and Abby fell out the window. The evil man jumped after her.

"You didn't actually think you could get away that easy, did you?" he laughed. In his mind, though, he was thinking. _Darnit! That brat almost got away! I have really gotta stop monologuing._

"Oh yeah?" Abby said, getting up. "Watch me." She picked Lily up and ran, just ran. With no weapons, she didn't exactly have a better plan. If she tried to fight him, she would just turn into Abby flambé and she knew it.

He fired at her a couple times, but she managed to get to the ship. He fired once more and blasted one of her engines off. She hit the emergency start, even though the regular one was working fine. The engine groaned and pushed her forward. The ship kind of flopped into the sky. It was tilting and flopping all over the place, but she flew it all the way back to Cleveland before it crash-landed in someone's backyard. The couple came out and gaped at the giant ship that had landed on top of their garden. Abby stumbled out, carrying Lily.

"Lily?" the woman of the couple said.

"Mommy?" Lily asked.

"No way," Abby said. "You live here? Right here? In Cleveland?"

Lily's parents went to embrace her. They thanked Abby a thousand times over, and invited her in. The mother made cookies and Abby told them the whole story of what happened. At the end, Lily looked up with her big blue eyes.

"Until Abby, I didn't have hope," she said. Abby stared for a moment. She had never heard something so smart come from someone so young. She realised she HAD brought hope, lots of it, to all the preschoolers she rescued. SHE had suggested they take them home. SHE had carried on when none of her teammates would. SHE had rescued Lily from that island.

Abby said goodbye to Lily. She had grown kind of close to the little girl. Her parents said she could visit whenever she wanted. As Abby left, she sent the coordinates of the evil man's island to the KND moon base. She smiled, and knew she had done just fine.

**Alright! Only one more chapter to go and that's the epilogue. Great ending huh? R&R!**


	9. Epilogue

When she got back to the tree house, the rest of the team had already heard about what happened. They told her she was pretty brave. A little stupid for only bringing one weapon, but mostly brave. Nigel even admitted that she had done alright.

Abby visited Lily often. And soon, three months after the daring rescue, Abby received an invitation to Lily's fifth birthday party. Abby smiled, because she knew that without her, she might not have HAD a fifth birthday party. Abby knew she would definitely be going.


End file.
